


Unexpected

by georgiamagnolia



Series: The Plot Bunnies of Barba and Benson [12]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Case Fic, F/M, Holiday Delay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:00:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29429925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/georgiamagnolia/pseuds/georgiamagnolia
Summary: Rafael and Olivia have plans, of course they do. As usual what they plan and what they do are entirely different things.
Relationships: Rafael Barba/Olivia Benson
Series: The Plot Bunnies of Barba and Benson [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1945330
Comments: 5
Kudos: 31





	Unexpected

“Mr. er, Rafael, sorry, it’s Caroline, the Uber, I mean…”

“Lucy, I have caller ID. Take a deep breath and then start over, can you do that for me?” Rafael spoke calmly and softly, as he once would to a skittish witness on the stand. “Where are you and what is happening? Are you safe?” He could hear her breathing quick and shallow but trying to slow down, sighing out deep breaths before she started again.

“I’m fine, I’m in the real Uber car. My study partner Caroline was taken by someone in an Uber but he wasn’t really our Uber driver, the real one I’m in is following them now.”

“You are in an Uber car and you are following the fake Uber that your friend has been kidnapped by, do I have that right?”

“Yes, yes exactly.”

“I need you to do two things for me, Lucy. I need you to hold the line while I conference Olivia into this call, then I need you to put us on speaker, ok?”

“Yes, I can do that.”

“Good girl, hang on.” Rafael told his own Uber driver to turn around and head for the 16th Precinct as he dialed his wife’s phone to join her call to his with Lucy.

“Rafa, hi, I’m still half an hour from leaving. Everything good with you?”

“I’m good, Lucy isn’t. I’m conferencing you into her call, she’s upset and things are a little confused but I think you might want whoever is still in the squad to listen in, ok?”

“Ok,” Olivia’s voice was concerned but steady, something Rafael loved about her, Olivia could keep her head in a crisis. He could hear her calling Fin and Amanda to her office and then the sound changed as she clicked her own phone over to speaker. “Ready on our end, Rafael.”

Rafael adjusted his own phone and told Lucy she was on with him and Olivia. “Ok Lucy, now tell us again what happened.”

Lucy took a deep breath and started talking, calmer than she had been, “Caroline and I were working on a project for class, then we went to a student hang out and had one drink each and I texted for an Uber. We were waiting on the sidewalk and the car pulled up. I was on the phone with my mom so when the driver opened the window and asked for me, Caroline said yes, that’s when someone opened the back door and grabbed Caroline and the car pulled away. I was trying to get a picture of the car when my real Uber pulled up and now we’re following the other car.”

“Tell me exactly where you are now, Lucy.” Olivia’s voice was still calm and Rafael imagined that either Fin or Amanda was now hurrying out of her office to send squad cars to join the parade, but it was the driver who answered the question, telling them the cross-street they had just passed.

“Thanks, and you are?” Olivia asked.

“Gary Johnston,” he sounded young.

“Mr. Johnston, did you see the car or anything that happened?” Olivia asked.

“I saw a girl, she looked like she was falling, then the car took off and I saw another girl who turned out to be my fare trying to take pictures. She told me her friend was taken and so we have been following while she called all of you.”

“Did either of you happen to see the license plate on the car?”

“No,” Lucy was upset again but trying her best to stay calm. “I was fumbling the phone and couldn’t get the picture in time.”

“I might have,” Gary said. “I have a camera on my dash, front and back facing both, and it might have a long shot of the car.”

“Good news at last,” Olivia said. Rafael checked the dash of his own Uber and saw nothing like a camera.

“Is that standard equipment these days?” he asked.

“No,” Gary said, “I just like tech. I have a sticker in the window of my car announcing it though, so everybody knows it’s there. Can’t be too careful.” Rafael wasn’t sure if he was being careful to let people know they were on not-so-Candid-Camera or if he was making sure he was covered if anyone tried anything stupid in the car. “It records to my cloud account so I can give you the password and log-in and you can look at it now, you can scroll back to when I picked Miss Huston up and you can watch in real time, too. That’s ok right, if I give you permission to look at it?”

“Yes,” Olivia’s voice was surprised, “that’s fine.” She got the information and Rafael could hear the tapping of keys as she typed the information into her computer. Gary explained how to split the screen so she could watch the real time feed and scroll back to where he’d witnessed Caroline grabbed. Olivia scrolled back a bit more, looking for a license plate.

“Lucy,” Rafael asked, “tell me again what happened when the fake car pulled up?” He thought a moment and added, “Please.”

“I was on the phone with my mom and the car pulled up. The passenger window came down but only halfway and someone said ‘Uber for Lucy’ and Caroline answered yes and the back door opened and someone grabbed her, then the car was leaving.”

“And they had your name?” he asked softly.

“Yes, just like usual. Only I guess not like usual, huh?”

Rafael heard the rumble of Fin’s voice in the background and Olivia was speaking to Lucy again. “We have an unmarked car near you now and they have the plate number of the other car, I need you to come to the precinct.”

“What about Caroline?”

“They have the car in sight, we’re sure it’s the right one. It’s time to come in and let us handle things from here.” Olivia kept her tone even and reassuring. “I’m sorry Mr. Johnston, we’ll need to talk to you as well.”

“It’s ok, and you can call me Gary. I’m happy to help. Turning around now, if you can give me the address, I’ll get it in my GPS.”

Rafael handed his own driver a cash tip in addition to the standard tip on his Uber account payment, for the inconvenience of changing addresses midstream, then gathered his briefcase and left the warmth of the car for the cold of February in New York. He kept the phone to his ear all the way up the elevator to Olivia’s office, then muted it when he walked in the open door, nodding to Fin and Amanda. He dropped his case on the couch and hung his coat before joining Olivia behind her desk, leaning over her to look at the picture on her computer. He pressed a kiss to her temple and she raised a hand from the keyboard to pat his cheek absentmindedly, then continued typing in a half screen he realized as a preliminary report of events.

“I love when you multitask,” he murmured in her ear.

“Not the multitasking I had planned for tonight.”

Rafael chuckled and Olivia smirked up at him before continuing what she was doing. “You’ve already spotted the bigger issue here, I’m guessing?” Rafael continued to speak softly, only for Olivia to hear. Fin and Amanda were in the office but both on their own phones while Olivia listened to Gary and Lucy making their way toward the squad. Olivia grabbed a pen and a pad of notepaper. She wrote ‘your uber account’ and underlined the word ‘your’. Rafael nodded.

“Yep,” Olivia said softly, nodding toward Fin and Amanda, “got them on a way to figure out how that happened.”

“Dammit.”

“Not your fault, Barba.”

“Doesn’t make me feel better, Detective, but thanks anyway.” 

Olivia smiled up at her husband, amusement lighting her eyes despite the serious turn of the evening and the fate of Lucy’s friend in the balance. He always resorted to calling her Detective when he was annoyed but still kindly disposed toward her. If he called her Benson, she might be in tangible trouble. 

“We’re a few blocks out, now, Captain,” Gary said.

“Great, Amanda will be waiting for you downstairs to show you where you can park and bring you upstairs.” Amanda, still on her phone, nodded to let her Captain know she’d heard her and left the office. Fin hung up and came over to Olivia’s desk, waiting. Olivia waited until she was certain Amanda had the situation handled, then signed off the call with Lucy. Rafael took his phone out of his jacket pocket and made sure the call dropped off his phone. Olivia turned to Fin, “What’s TARU got, anything?”

“Tech says they have no way to tell if a single phone has been hijacked and Uber hasn’t reported any data breaches. If someone had a backdoor into their system and mirrored the information from one account they might not even notice it. We have no way to tell if Lucy was targeted because she’s on Barba’s Uber account or if either of them are targeted at all. Could be some scumbag heard her in the bar talking about getting a ride, no idea if it’s random or planned.”

“That’s less helpful than I would hope.” Olivia sat back in her chair, her arm snaking out and around Rafael’s waist as he was still standing by her chair.

“I never imagined that adding Lucy to my Uber account would put her in danger.”

Olivia tightened her arm around his waist and looked up at Rafael, “We have no way of knowing if it has anything to do with you.”

“The guys in the car took the wrong girl so they couldn’t have known much about Lucy if she was the target,” Fin said.

“What we have so far is a fake Uber coming to pick up Lucy whose name is on Rafael’s account because nine times out of ten she’s going somewhere with Noah so it’s easier for us to just fold her into our account. Someone may or may not have hacked her phone, his phone, or the Uber account itself to get her information and fake the pick up or she’s been followed or overheard ordering a ride. Whoever did the fake pick up grabbed the wrong girl. That’s a whole lot of what if and maybe.” Olivia huffed a frustrated sigh. Rafael put his hand on the back of her neck, gently rubbing at the tension gathering there, staying quiet.

“Is Lucy a secret heiress?”

“Nice try Fin, but no. Her mom lives in some Jersey suburb and she’s retired, no help there.”

From the bullpen they could hear Amanda arrive with the others. “Fin, you and Amanda go find out everything possible from and about that Gary guy, Rafael and I will talk to Lucy in here.” Fin nodded and left the office as Amanda brought Lucy in and then closed the door as she left.

Lucy stood inside the door, unmoving. Olivia rose and approached her, putting one arm around the young woman’s shoulders and leading her to the couch. Rafael went to the door, mouthing to Olivia that he was getting a drink for Lucy, Olivia nodded and sat, gently pulling Lucy to the couch with her as Rafael slipped out.

“Are Sonny and Karla out looking for Caroline?”

It wasn’t the first question Olivia had expected Lucy to ask and was surprised she’d noticed their absence. “They went home already. Major Case is on the job with the kidnapping. They have roadblocks set up and as soon as they have information they will call us, and I need to get as much information to them from you as possible. Do you happen to have a picture on your phone of Caroline, and do you have a number or address for her parents?”

“I have a picture of us we took at dinner the other night, and her phone number. I don’t know anything about her parents or family though, she never talks about them. Sorry.” Lucy took out her phone and scrolled through until she found a snap of her and her friend. “I can send it to your phone if you like?”

“Sure, good.” Olivia noticed that Lucy’s hands trembled a little as she was using her phone, she might be having some delayed shock. She’d keep an eye on her in case it got dangerous. Her phone pinged and the picture popped up when she slid her fingers across her phone to open the message. “This is your friend Caroline?”

“Yes. Caroline Fyfe.” Another ping sounded and an address and phone number came through in another message. “That’s all the information we’ve ever exchanged. She lives near me, sometimes we study at each other’s places.”

There was a quiet knock and the door opened, Rafael entered carrying a cardboard tray with three carry-out cups in it. He shut the door again and brought the coffee over. Olivia made sure that Lucy had some of the warm drink, then stood and led Rafael to the door. “I need to get this information out, you ok sitting in here with Lucy?” 

“Of course, she’s family.”

“Thanks, Rafa,” Olivia whispered close to his ear, taking her coffee and going out to the bullpen.

“What’s wrong with this picture?” Olivia asked, holding up the phone in her hand.

“College girls having pizza with no beer?” Fin asked.

“Or boys,” Amanda added.

“Would you mistake the girl in this picture for my nanny?”

“Well, now that you mention it, she’s a lot more blonde than Lucy. Who is she?” Amanda asked.

“Caroline Fyfe, our kidnap victim.”

“That name sounds familiar, how’s it spelled?” Fin opened a new tab on his computer and Olivia showed him the name and address information Lucy had sent her.

“Where’s Gary?”

“He needed the facilities so I got a uniform from downstairs to escort him, should be back soon,” Fin explained as he typed the information in the screen.

Olivia nodded pressed the button to put her in contact with Major Case, listening to the phone ring on the other end and sounds of typing in her bullpen.

“The Johnston kid is clean,” Amanda said. “He’s been a driver for Uber for three years, has been in two very far off Broadway shows that closed early, and he has no sheet whatsoever. His reviews are good though, both with Uber and with the few theatre critics that saw him.”

Olivia nodded at Amanda as someone answered the phone on the other end of her line. She identified herself and was immediately transferred.

“Eames.”

“Benson.”

“Oh shit,” Fin said.

“I take it you have interesting information for me?” Eames asked, suppressing a laugh because despite the gravity of a kidnapping, sometimes you just needed some tension relief, too.

“I’ll put you on speaker so we can all find out together.” Olivia held out her phone and pushed the button, nodding at Fin to elaborate.

“Caroline Fyfe is a distant cousin to one of the Five Families, her particular branch hasn’t been indicted for anything and likely won’t be because they seem to all have legitimate careers and whatnot, but she has some uncles and grandparent level relatives that have rap sheets that read like crime novels.”

“Shoot that info my way, if you would?” Eames asked.

“You got it.” Fin tapped more keys and sent the information off. They could hear Eames whistle when she looked the information over for herself. 

“You do find the most exciting cases, Olivia, I’m not jealous at all.”

“Happily for me, I am not investigating this one.”

“Thanks for reminding me.” Eames still sounded amused. “I’ll crop that picture you sent and get it out on the streets. We still have the car surveilled and they are in a pretty nasty traffic snarl approaching the DUI checkpoint. We’ll have them…” Eames broke off as the sound of a radio squawked in the background. They could clearly hear her talking to someone else, “What?! Get the hell in there, that’s some clear distress. Go, go, go!” She started talking to Olivia and her crew again. “Someone just put a foot through the back window of the car we’ve been tailing. Do you know if this Caroline does any kickboxing?”

“I have no idea, but good for her if it was Caroline.” Olivia smiled and Amanda and Fin cheered quietly. A uniformed officer walked in escorting a young man in jeans and a flannel shirt, carrying a dark coat and wearing a scotch cap and dark rimmed glasses. “Let me know as soon as you have anything, we’ll be here a while longer.”

“Will do, Olivia.” The line went dead in the middle of Eames talking to someone on her end.

“You must be Gary Johnston,” Olivia pocketed her phone and held her hand out, Gary gave her a firm but not obnoxious handshake and nodded. “Good to meet you, have a seat.” After he sat in the visitor’s chair at Fin’s desk, Olivia continued, “We appreciate your help this evening, sorry it’s cut a chunk out of your work time.”

“It’s alright, really, this was going to be my last fare of the evening until the midnight shift starts.” He smiled and it was a thousand watts of earnest puppy shining from his brown eyes. He’d either never outgrown whatever rural background he came from or hadn’t had the natural distrust of a city dweller installed in the first place. Olivia wondered if ingénue came in guy flavour and what that would even be called. Then again, he installed a camera in his car that recorded whatever was going on during his Uber drives, so maybe he had some healthy distrust of strangers, at least.

Olivia discussed with him what they would need, his statement signed and a release for the digital images and he agreed readily so she let Fin and Amanda take over again and returned to her office. There she found Rafael sitting in his usual chair but turned to face the couch where Lucy sat, still holding the coffee like a lifeline but looking more relaxed. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing as Rafael counted. 

“Better?”

“It is, yes, thank you.” Lucy opened her eyes and smiled at Olivia. “Mr. Barba was helping me learn some relaxation exercises.”

Rafael turned and smiled as well, “Just something I used to do when I was at University, it helped sometimes before a test,” he shrugged a shoulder, “seemed like Lucy could use it tonight. Besides, it’s way too cold out for a jog, which is another relaxation technique I picked up back then.”

Olivia thought of other relaxation techniques she preferred as well, including a guitar that lived in the closet at home, but she didn’t mention them, only nodded. “He’s handy to have around, isn’t he?” She joined Lucy on the couch and was glad to see that her nanny was no longer shaky and teary-eyed. “We need to get your statement and then we can get you home, ok?”

“What about Caroline?”

“I think we’ll have some news very soon.”

They went over the events of the night and Olivia typed up a document for Lucy to read and sign. When they finished, Olivia asked one last question, “Did you see anyone following you or Caroline tonight or have you seen anything out of the ordinary in the last few days?”

“Nothing at all,” Lucy shrugged, “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be sorry, this isn’t your fault. In fact, I am sure that none of the events this evening had anything to do with you or with Rafael. Let’s get this statement out to Fin and Amanda so they can add it to the file and maybe by then some news will break.” Both gave her puzzled looks but Olivia just gathered up their empty coffee cups, tossed them in the trash and took the signed statement out for her crew, followed by Rafael and Lucy.

Olivia’s phone rang so she dropped the papers on Fin’s desk and pulled her phone out.

“Benson.”

“It wasn’t kickboxing, it was Doc Marten’s.”

Olivia grinned, “Way to start a conversation, Eames.”

“I thought we were continuing a conversation.”

“Fair enough. So, the mission was a success then?”

“Ours was, theirs’ not so much.”

“Yay for our team.”

“We have two guys in custody and their plan sounds dumb enough to be the truth. Caroline’s father owns a moderately successful bakery and a different branch of the family thought it would be a great front for some money laundering since it is and has always been a clean business. Despite being told to leave them the hell alone by everyone in every branch of the family, these two idiots decided to kidnap Caroline and force her father to comply. Currently no lawyer will take their call so they are going to spend the night in a cell and very likely not see arraignment court until Monday morning. Caroline was fine, we have her statement and her parents have come and picked her up. I let them know where Lucy was because Caroline was pretty distraught at leaving Lucy behind and confused. They should be to your precinct by now.”

“Every bit of that is a relief, thanks for letting me know.”

“Letting you know that it wasn’t your husband or nanny that was a target, yeah, happy to be the bearer of glad tidings. For once.” Eames laughed and so did Olivia, pure relief running through her like joy and sunshine. “I’ve got paperwork now, tons of it, so you have a great night and enjoy whatever is left of your Valentine’s Day.”

“You too, and thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Let’s have lunch soon and not talk about work.”

“I love that plan.”

A uniformed officer escorted an older couple and a young woman into the bullpen. The blonde girl was very obviously Lucy’s friend considering the way they threw their arms around one another and hugged, then leaned back and looked each other over for injury. Caroline did have a black eye and bruised knuckles but she was grinning. “You should see the other guy, no really, see him!” She pulled her phone from her jacket pocket and showed Lucy a picture of two young men, both bruised and bloodied much worse than she was. They sat on a curb, handcuffed, trying to appear defiant and failing miserably. Caroline happily showed the evidence of her win to everyone in the room.

Olivia’s cell pinged a text and when she checked it was from Eames and all it said was ‘take the cannoli’ with three exclamation marks and a donut emoji after it. She showed it to Rafael who shrugged.

“I never turn down baked goods.”

“I refuse to leave my gun, though.”

The couple approached, each carrying a big bakery box. “We want to thank you for helping our daughter,” the man said, “and I know that police aren’t supposed to accept gifts but if we were to leave these innocent boxes here you would be required to destroy them, correct?”

“Technically true,” Rafael said. Olivia only nodded, a bemused look on her face.

They sat the boxes on an empty desk. “There now, how you choose to destroy them is up to you, we’ll speak of it no more.” He took the hand of the woman beside him, “I am Johnny Fyfe, this is my wife Patrice. We are grateful, words can’t express.” 

Olivia introduced them to the squad and handshakes were exchanged. Gary Johnston was introduced and was nearly smothered by the hug that Mrs. Fyfe gave him and he had to promise twice to visit the bakery as soon as he could. 

Meanwhile, Amanda and Fin finished their paperwork and sent digital copies up the chain and Lucy agreed to leave with Caroline and her parents. Gary gave the girls his direct number so that in future if they needed a ride, any time of day or night, if he was free he told them he would make sure they got safely where they wanted to go.

Rafael and Olivia slipped out of the squad ahead of the crowd and were surprised when they reached the street and saw a black town car idling in front of the building. Olivia was pulling Rafael back toward the door when the passenger door opened and an older man unfolded himself from the backseat.

“My grandson, Gianni, he is still inside, yes?”

Olivia answered him in Italian and most of what Rafael understood was that she answered in the affirmative and that she wished him a good evening and there was stuff he didn’t catch at all. “Show off,” he muttered under his breath, trying not to laugh.

Olivia decided to chance it and headed to her unmarked car with Rafael in tow. They waited for the car to warm and watched the other car in the mirrors, the older man still standing in the cold, waiting.

“We missed our reservation.”

“We did, Happy Valentine’s Day to us.” Rafael smiled.

“You have a very sneaky look about you tonight, Rafa.” Rafael shrugged, still smiling. He reminded Olivia of the early days of their friendship, those days when he’d sneak a look over his shoulder at her during a trial, his look telling her to keep watching he was about to pull a rabbit out of his hat and it turned out to be a lion instead. “Did you call and tell your mom we’d be over to get Noah earlier than we expected?”

“I did call my mom.” Rafael nodded, still with that look in his eye, the dim light from the dashboard casting shadows and making him look diabolical.

“You aren’t going to tell me what you have up your sleeve tonight, are you?”

“I prefer show to tell.”

“I wonder if there were really cannoli in the boxes.” Olivia changed the subject, thinking if she threw him off topic he’d let something slip.

“There were,” Rafael said, pulling a napkin wrapped bundle from his coat pocket. He held them out, “Dessert first, life is uncertain.”

Olivia grinned at him and chose one of the two treats, then they shared them while the windows fogged over.

**Author's Note:**

> SRSLY. Stay tuned. It's only part one.


End file.
